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Ramon Confectionary, a famous entity in Russia, filed trade mark application number 2013705310 in respect of goods in class 30 (pictured below).

Clarity is needed on certain aspects of the law regarding patent claim amendment, argues Víctor Garrido of Dumont Bergman Bider & Co, SC

H D Lee of the USA, owner of the famous brand Lee for jeans, suffered another setback in its trade mark battle with local company Emerald Garment Manufacturing Co. As far back as 1995, the Supreme Court issued decision in GR 100098 holding that Emerald's trade mark Stylistic Mr Lee is not confusingly similar to H D Lee's trademark Lee, applying the holistic test, despite the decisions of the then Bureau of Patents, Trademarks, Technology Transfer (now the Intellectual Property Office of the Philippines) and the Court of Appeals using the dominancy test. This 1995 decision also ruled that while H D Lee was the senior registrant, it failed to substantiate its claim of prior use of the mark dating as far back as 1946, while Emerald was able to provide sales invoices proving actual use since 1975.

The recent CJEU judgment and subsequent national interpretation in Rovi Guides v Telenet will have a significant impact on the predictability of legal costs and should be taken into account when setting up an IP litigation strategy in Belgium, as Steven Sarlet and Ben Brigou explain

Deciding whether to keep proprietary information secret or apply for a patent is a key commercial decision. Leythem Wall and Katherine Banks weigh up the options, focusing on inventions in the chemical industry

In appeal proceedings before the EPO, patentees and applicants frequently withdraw failed requests at the end of oral proceedings. For example, if the patentee's second auxiliary request is allowed, whereas the main and first auxiliary requests are rejected, most patentees will routinely withdraw the main and first auxiliary requests. Such withdrawal may in particular be made with a view to expediting the Board of Appeals' subsequent preparation of the written decision, as no written reasoning is to be prepared in respect of withdrawn requests.

In European patent opposition practice most opposition cases are based on the ground of a lack of novelty or at least on the lack of an inventive step. The success of these opposition cases strongly depends on the quality of the prior art documents cited by the opponent.

The UK’s departure from the EU threatens to disrupt IP practice in the country – and patent and trade mark firms are already taking steps to mitigate the potential damage. James Nurton reports

International trade mark number 1109244 (filed as a shape mark on the basis of a German registration with proven secondary meaning) was filed in class 30 for "chocolate goods also with fillings" and shows a piece of chocolate in the form of a pyramidal stump having on the top surface impressed a stylised star. The protection for that mark was rejected by the Patent Office and the Appellate Court. So its owner restricted the list of goods by inserting after "goods" the words "in tabular arrangement" and at the end "except pralines". It was found that that shape mark is neither inherently distinctive nor that acquired distinctiveness is proven, although it is marketed in Austria under the trade mark Schogetten packaged as a bar.

Michael Loney and Natalie Rahhal analyse five IP decisions issued in Canada, two from the Supreme Court and three from the Federal Court